Natural History
Natural History
Property from an Important American Collection
Giant Petrified Wood Desk/Table with Tree Root Base
No reserve
Lot Closed
December 3, 07:47 PM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Giant Petrified Wood Desk/Table with Tree Root Base
Araucarioxylon arizonicum
Mid Triassic (approx. 225 million years ago)
Chinle Formation, Northern Arizona
Specimen and attached base measure 87 by 50 by 31¾ inches (221 x 127 x 80.6 cm). The petrified wood weighs 1,122 pounds (509 kg); tree root base weighs 525 pounds (238 kg).
This desk/table top is made from a single slice of petrified wood that has been polished to reveal details of its natural character. The legs are fashioned from a section of tree limbs which have been left in their original uncarved, unpolished, and weathered state.
Petrified wood is the name given to a special type of fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. Over the course of thousands of years, inorganic materials in the groundwater surrounding this buried specimen have seeped in and replaced the organic minerals via a process known as permineralization. During this petrification process, the plant's lignin and cellulose decay while inorganic materials—predominately silicates such as quartz—essentially use the tree as a scaffolding to build an exact, rock copy of this approx. 225 million year old tree.
The fossilized specimen offered here represents a unique opportunity to own both a beautiful and a functional example of the incredible process of permineralization.
PROVENANCE:
Russel-Zuhl Collection, Northampton, MA. Acquired from the above by the current owner, 1999.